Sunday, 24 September 2017

Exploding Skies

There have
been a number of occasions in Ireland when the sky just seemed to explode. I’m
posting two here. While it would be easy – and most likely correct – to assume
a meteor was responsible in each case, both incidents were preceded by some
strange weather.

The first
incident occurred on 7 February 1868 and was reported in The Cork Examiner.

The
travellers by the evening passenger train from Dublin, which arrived at Cork at
eight o’clock, p.m., on Friday last, were favoured with an atmospheric
transformation scene, as remarkable for its unusual character as for its
singular beauty. When the train had left the Limerick junction the sky which
had since the setting in of night been clear with a bright moon, became
suddenly overcast, with vast irregular masses of cloud of unusual density and
darkness, and having strange livid edges of glowing red, the combined aspect
being unearthly and awful. Some of the passengers, attracted by this unusual
appearance while observing the threatening masses overhead, were suddenly
dazzled by a glare of light which illuminated the entire heavens with an
extreme brilliancy, lasting, some say, upwards of half a minute; others not
more than ten seconds. It was entirely instantaneous in its appearance, and died
out with the same suddenness. All concur in stating that no meteor or other
aerial body was perceptible, and no one could account for the origin of the
phenomenon. The recurrence of darkness was immediately followed by an extremely
heavy down-pour of mingled hail and snow, which in a few minutes sheeted the
country around. In a quarter of an hour the cloud itself had passed eastward,
and left the night as calm and bright as before.

The second
incident took place on 13 July 1908 and was reported in The Irish News and
Belfast Morning News.

Since the hot
weather cooled down we have had some strange meteorological experiences. On the
13th, while it was teeming at the Carlisle Circus, not a drop of
rain fell at the docks. A few days previously, an extraordinary shower fell on
the Lisburn Road. Between Melrose Street and College Gardens it rained as if it
had been a cloud burst; from College Gardens to the Infirmary the road was as
dry as powder; but from the latter point to Shaftesbury Square it was simply
pouring. It would be difficult to explain this occurrence, which, though
extraordinary, is not unique. Moreover, the sky was uniformly clouded at the
time; there was no break in the clouds – not a trace of the blue.

But a much
stranger thing happened on Wednesday during the progress of a prolonged rain
storm. The whole sky was overcast. A drizzling sort of rain – not much more
than a mist – was falling. It suddenly ceased, and people though the clouds
were breaking; but in about two minutes, without warning, a terrific explosion
was heard, which shook the windows of the writer’s house. A hissing noise
followed, as if a fire were being extinguished, while at the same moment a
blaze of fire opened out of a cloud somewhat in the shape of a cross. The
illumination bore no resemblance to any kind of lightning, remaining much
longer in the vision, and expanding itself right across the clouds. Citizens
wondered what had happened, some thinking that it was an explosion of one of
the gas mains, others a great conflagration in some part of the city. The area
in which the remarkable event happened would be that part of the sky spreading
over the Botanic Gardens, but it would be difficult to exactly locate the exact
place. Certain gases may have formed in the clouds, and through their
antagonistic properties had found vent in the nature of disturbing friction. In
any case, this phenomenon has set some people thinking of the end of the world
and so on.

Some time ago
a similar occurrence took place near Crumlin. Some men were working in a field
when they heard an explosion, and, looking in the direction from whence it
proceeded, they saw an object falling in a corner of the field, and raising a
cloud of dust. They inspected the spot where it fell, and found a large mineral
mass embedded in the ground about a foot and a half deep. The stone was hot to
the touch; they let it cool, and brought it to a house quite adjacent. The
stone is now in the public library on the ground floor, and can be seen at any
time.

Of course
this stone was a meteoric one – at least this is the opinion of good judges in
such matters. It appears there was no rain, nor was the sky much clouded when
the Crumlin meteor fell, so that the circumstances are quite different in
comparison to the incident narrated above. The Crumlin meteoric explosion took
place in the middle of the day, whereas this phenomenon occurred in the
evening.